Allah—you find him written in your Torah by name (1) and by description. I therefore bear witness that he is the Messenger of Allah; I believe in him, affirm him, and acknowledge him.’ They replied, ‘You have lied,’ and then they poured abuse on me. I said, ‘Messenger of Allah, did I not tell you that they are a people of calumny, treachery, falsehood, and immorality?’

I then made my Islam public, the members of my household embraced Islam, and my aunt, the daughter of al-Hārith, also accepted Islam, and her Islam was commendable (2).

In the Musnad of Imām Aḥmad and elsewhere it is related from him that he said: ‘When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ arrived in Medina and the people flocked toward him, saying, “The Messenger of Allah has come,” I went out among the crowd to look at his face. The moment I saw his face I knew it was not the face of a liar. The first words I ever heard him say were: “O people, feed others, spread peace, maintain the ties of kinship, and pray while the people are asleep—you will enter Paradise in peace.”’ (3)

Thus the scholars and rabbis of that community were, without exception, as Allah the Exalted has said: “Those to whom We gave the Scripture recognize him just as they recognize their own sons” (al-Baqarah 2:146; al-Anʿām 6:20). Among them were those who chose Allah, His Messenger, and the Hereafter, while others preferred this worldly life and obeyed the call of envy and arrogance.